Interest category on a car loan.

Dave Davis

I just created a loan for my new vehicle with no apparent problems. Except, it automatically placed the interest part of the monthly payment under the category: Auto & Transport:Auto Payment:Interest. I would rather it be the same category I've been using for years: Interest Exp: Auto.

Is there a way to change it other than manually in the split transaction for each payment?

Thanks

Boatnmaniac

Hi @Dave Davis .  Before proceeding, I suggest you back up your data file in case something goes wrong.

When you set up your loan payment it should have set up a Bill Reminder for the monthly payments.  Find the next Bill Reminder for that loan and:

• "Edit this instance and all future instances". 
  
• Then click on "Split" and then on the split symbol so you can see the split categories.
• In the category splits you will see a line (probably the 2nd line) for "Auto & Transport:Auto Payment:Interest."  Replace that category with "Interest Exp:Auto".  (Important:  Do NOT change which lines in the split the categories are in...just exchange the one category name for the other.  If you change which lines the categories are in, it will likely mess up your principal and interest calculations and it could also mess up the transactions in the loan register and in the payments history.)
  
• Then click OK > OK > Done.

Now when all future Bill Reminders are entered into the Account Register they will place the interest allocation in the category you want.  It will also be reflected this way in reports.

For payments that have already been completed:  You will need to manually change the category in the transaction category splits for each completed transaction.